A journalist's view from the scrapheap

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WARNING: Stay on benefits. Do not work part-time.

In 2011 Cameron said, “Never again will work be the wrong financial choice … We are finally going to make work pay for some of the poorest people in our society.”

What a laugh!

As you know, I found part-time work. I was quite excited by this. I’m now told my Jobseekers’ Allowance has been stopped, I’m entitled to reduced Housing Benefit and I’m not entitled to Council Tax Benefit

I’ve received a number of letters pointing out differing amounts I am or I’m not entitled to and my head is spinning but I’ve tried to calculate what this means.

And I’m £21 per month worse off by working. Add to this the money I have to find for rent and Council Tax and I’m a massive £158 a month worse off before I’ve even paid the rest of my bills.

It’s literally impossible.

I will, of course, also pay high bank charges when I inevitably become overdrawn losing yet more from my paltry income.

If my calculations are accurate, I’m at very real risk of becoming deeper in debt and, ultimately, losing my home.

Over a year since Cameron excitedly said work will pay, the reality is I’m now awake in the early hours panicking about not having any money, fretting that I won’t have fares to even get to work and questioning whether I’ll be penalised for packing in my part-time job and returning to full benefits.

Stay on benefits. You know it makes sense.

I understand I can’t get Working Tax Credits because I work fewer then 16 hours per week.

I’ve not been given any advice on alternative benefit options so don’t think there are any. I have to accept a loss of £158 per month and work.

So – for those who think the unemployed should try to get at least a few hours work – it is an impossible challenge. That is, unless you’re working as part of slave labour for multi-million companies while “earning” your benefits.

I’ll look into it. I’ve been given no advice on alternatives at all. I’ve been sent letters with conflicting information – first I get nothing, then I get a bit of housing benefit. My Job Centre Plus advisor has kept me signing on despite Job Centre PLus considering me being in work. I even wrote “worked as agreed” in my Looking for Work booklet but realise that means nothing: no one cares. It’s madness. I think I have a second part-time job starting next week so should be ok until early next year. But this is the way people are treated all the time.

you cant get working tax credits if you work 15 hours a week, you only get it if you work 16 hours which is silly , i would lose over £ 70.00 a week if i took a job for 15 hours but gain much more by working 16 hours .

I’ve just started working 17 hours a week, at £9.14 an hour but i have to work a month in hand and can’t find any info about the DSS helping bridge the gap until i can get paid, as they’ve stopped the back to work credit in 2013, am i supposed to live on nothing until i get paid?
I have 2 dependent children and a wife and bills to pay, Do i qualify for any help from the DSS?

Sorry to hear of your plight. That twat Cameron and his crew of jackals has so much to answer for. I’m crapping myself about next April when I get docked £ 12 a week for having a spare bedroom, then I lose my ESA in June and the local council may want a contribution to council tax

Hi
I don’t understand why you are actually worse off – I thought that with housing benefit/council benefit you should be not exactly better off but not actually worse off. For example, I work part time and get a bit of housing benefit and I am about 10 pounds a week better off (although I don’t have stuff like free dental treatment, prescriptions, etc, and if I got the bus to work I would be worse off). Are you sure they have worked out your housing benefit correctly?

The powers that be stopped all my benefits. Suspended everything and told me I wasn’t entitled to any housing benefit or council tax benefit. This, of course, left me much worse off. Then they said I might be entitled to a bit more but this still meant I was worse off because it was minimal. Now they’re saying I might be entitled to a bit more again – and who knows what they’ll offer now. The problem isn’t my calculations but what they choose to do with the (detailed) information provided – that is suspend all benefits first, plunge people into poverty, then backtrack when the decision is questioned. My worry is that people who don’t challenge them end up in a real financial mess.

This dreadful situation you describe is precisely what the introduction of Universal Credit is aiming to obliterate for ever. Universal Credit will introduce a taper that will slowly ensure that people do NOT have their benefits cut off in the manner you describe within moments from reporting that two weeks down the line they’re starting a job. The taper will be applied slowly, over many months, and will be directly proportionate to money earnt on the job, so that nobody will ever be worse off in work.

Also, the conflicting info you’re currently receiving is also testament to the pressing reason for introducing Universal Credit: civil servants are currently lumbered with manuals 10,000 pages long (no extra zero there) in order to understand how a small (or not-so-small) change will affect the payments of benefits. It is a system that is open to countless human error and that, quite rightly, infers that it’s better for people to stay on benefits, no matter how little they get, because they’ll almost certainly be worse off if they take a job (a job that doesn’t pay at least £25,000p/a, that is).

I am only relating facts of Universal Credit here, not hearsay. I was in your position in 2009, when I was also looking for work and it’s an unpleasant place to be, to put it mildly. But when I was claiming, I was doing so under a Labour government and it was absolutely not any better. I only claimed on a contribution basis and for six months only, after which I was put on the door with a pat on the back. I never qualified for any other benefit but was still suggested to fill in a 12-page Council Tax benefit form only to be told upon submission that I did not qualify because I did have an income of £400pcm. I survived because my parents kept me afloat, but by the time I started my new job 18 months since I was not entitled to sign on any longer, I had accrued in excess of £20,000 worth of debt. All I can say is, thank God for credit cards, and also, there is light at the end of the tunnel for the qualified, I promise you.

If you are a doley dosser, stop spending more than you get, it’s not an income you lazy bastard, its some “income support” till you find a full time job!!!
How thick are you!
The benefit system isn’t a suppliment to your income, it’s for people who can’t find work.
There’s lots of people earning low wages but they find a way.
Have some self respect, long term “benefit” swagging losers have a rubbish life because they have no work ethic, no self respect and spend more than they earn.
Absolute wasters.

I’ve worked mostly full-time for 27 years so can hardly be dismissed as a “lazy bastard” or a “long term benefit swagging loser”. Your assumption that all unemployed people have always been unemployed is ridiculous – and clearly a wilful decision to hate rather than understand. Also, I do live within my means but perhaps banks shouldn’t charge people £15 for ghoing £1 overdrawn. And Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance are different benefits received for different reasons. Perhaps you should educate yourself about the situation before you so rudely attempt to educate others. Next time you write to me I will delete your vitriol. It’s not what I think people should have to read.

What a horrible man you are! You need to look over what you type and think how it would come across to others. I get the feeling you are very lonely in life, and desperate to get attention by other means

After what I have just been through, I would love to see you fall on your rear end my friend. Everybodys circumstances differ when life decides to deal you a bad card and you end up on benefits. Do you still live with mummy and daddy?…Just thought I would ask.

“Over a year since Cameron excitedly said work will pay” I’m afraid you misunderstood: when this millionaire politician said that he meant it would pay for the employers employing people at minimum wage (or indeed ha ha ha ha ha ha at no wage if you are lucky enough to be forced onto Mr I. D. Smith’s Work Program). No to worry – alot of people like you seem to have misunderstood those words of wisdom from dear David.

I am a single mum was working full time on a min wage job couldn’t afford the rent got very ill with depression have gone back to work part time and am now getting in so much debt I get 800 a month with tax cred and wages in this and im still expected to pay 3/4 of my rent and council tax I am struggling to even put fuel in the car. My company pay 80 a month petrol cost but I’m putting 75 a week in! I don’t know what to do I have never been so bad off and I can feel myself getting ill again. On top of this I av to pay school meals at 40 a month we have no luxuries like Internet at home and car is in desperate need of repairs 😦

Hi, I’m a single mum of 2 little boys, I’ve been working part time for the last 6 months and I am so much more worse off working part time than I was just on benefits. I hated not being able to provide for my sons after splitting from their dad, who may I add pays nothing and cause he doesn’t work the csa have said he can pay me 5 pound a week for our kids. This makes me sick!!! I’m sat here today worrying about the cold weather and not having warm clothes or shoes for my sons and to top it off the council r saying I owe over 300 pound rent. So I now find myself not being able to sleep and worrying myself sick about what I’m going to do and how I’m going to find extra money to pay the rent. People r quick to judge us single mums, but do they really think we want to live like this? My sons r my world and it kills me that I feel so useless.

I would like to add that I am a single mother who finds myself in an impossible situation when my sons are on holiday. How can I be available for work were I to go on JSA?? Who looks after my sons while I work? ??

Hello everyone, sorry to hear of your plight, but also slightly reassured, that people are discussing the subject and that I’m not the only person on benefits, facing the same impending wrath of the ‘Bedroom Tax’ !

If you can bear with me a few minutes, I have a few things to say on the matter.

Firstly. Housing. There isn’t even enough alternative single bedroom housing in this country to accommodate ALL the people that are going to incur the ‘Bedroon Tax’.

Therefore, how can it be lawful to impose such a tax ??

Secondly. Employment. It’s a complete ‘No brainer’ to take a job, if the impact on your life is detrimental in any form.
When it is no longer financially viable to take a job, why on Earth would/should a person be forced to take one ? And why would anyone, from the Prime Minister to the village idiot chose to be worse off if they could ? lol ! ; )

It’s totally illogical captain !!!

But the powers that be don’t care that it’s illogical, or that we don’t have any choice in the matter, because it’s part of a much wider plan, to impoverish the masses of working and middle class people of this and every other nation to make them even more dependent, subservient and controllable !

We are now entering a period of Massive change that could go either way, depending HOW or even IF the people choose to try to say or do anything about it. Any form of civil protest, unrest or uprising is swiftly quashed, tarnished or debunked by the corporate/political elite through their Main Stream Media Propaganda machine.

We are Economic Slaves, no better off than under the feudalistic system, living under a… (wait for it !!)…. Tyrannical, Corporate controlled, Fascist government that wages wars on nations without any investigation or justification under the guise of ‘National security’ and the threat of ‘Terrorism’ to go strutting hand in hand with America and the rest of the EU disguised as ‘NATO’ or the ‘UN’ reclaiming its old Empirical territories and ‘Promoting Democracy’ in the other countries that are uprising against their Tyrannical rulers, only to have even worse ‘Technocratic’ leaders installed that are just more compliant with the American way of ‘Globalization’ (Economic and Political co-operation).
IN EXCHANGE FOR THE RESOURCES THAT WE HAVE GROWN TO BECOME TOTALLY DEPENDENT ON !

ALL AT THE COST OF THE BRITISH TAX PAYER !!

Just for example :
UK Defence Budget.
Whilst defence spending will decrease from the 2011 figure of £40bn to £39bn in 2012, it will however account for a slightly higher percentage of total governmental spending. Defence will account for 5.71% of national spending, the second highest amount in the last six years, second only to 2010 when it accounted for 5.73%.

* Source: army-technology.com

EU Membership
The net cost of the EU budget to Britain in 2011 was £10.8 billion* and rising. But the actual cost – direct and indirect – is much more than that.

Last time it was calculated, in 2008, (because it’s not that important !) the European Union was costing us £65 billion gross every year. That’s about £1,000 each every year for every man, woman and child in the UK. It increases every year, so it will be a lot more now.

* Source: Office for National Statistics “Pink Book”

We the people of the UK, are misinformed, mismanaged and misrepresented in every possible way ans have been, throughout ALL of it’s history !

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !!!

The ONLY way to do anything about this, is to spread the word to other like-minded people, and UNITE, in a Peaceful Universal Non-Compliance and simultaneously stop paying rent and any other form of taxation, because the cost of social housing has been paid for many, many times over, and all they are doing / would be losing, are funds generated to be redirected into
areas that are completely unnecessary in comparison to the plight of the General Public of this so-called United Kingdom.

What can they do ? Put us all in Prison for it !? 2.5M Unemployed People… 1.5M claimants !
I don’t think so !

Moaning about bedroom tax, what a joke, for a start you are just chanting Labours mantra. They are the o8nes that have tagged it a ‘tax’. What it actually is is a cut in the benefit that I am paying you by working to live in a house that has more bedrooms than necessary. I tried for many years to get a housing association house, but to no avail, because I work and my husband and I have 2 (tiny)bedrooms between us and our two children, which is enough if they share. Frankly I think you should start thinking yourself lucky that you have a council house at all, never mind having working people like me pay your rent for you whilst we live in cramped, expensive privately rented accommodation. If you don’t pay your rent then you deserve to be evicted. It’s my money (and of course that of other tax payers) that you are scrounging, NOT David Cameron’s personal funds.

I found a part time job that pays £12 per hour on a casual/flexible basis. I might get 1 night a week, I might get 3 or 4, and 5 if there’s a lot of work (busy periods of the year which are short lived). Is it right to purposely choose to work 2 nights a week (16 hours), qualifying for Jobseeker’s allowance and housing benefit, and also possibly council tax benefit? I can never be certain of more than 1 night per week, but I can get at the MOST 3, likely 2 nights every week, especially now that the “low” is coming during the Spring and Summer.

Potential earnings for 2 nights a week from my job would be £174 since 16 hours is part time and tax free. Plus £76 a week Jobseeker’s AND £56 a week housing benefit AND maybe £17 a week council tax benefit if I qualify, totalling £300+ a week, every week. By the way I am actually looking for a full time job, so I can qualify for Jobseeker’s without feeling like a con. My job is not forever.

If I chose NOT to go on the benefits, I would earn a MAXIMUM of £355 net a week for 5 shifts (this NEVER happens, I’ve had the job 5-6 months and had about 2-4 full weeks so far), £285 a week for 4 shifts (common only at busy times), £226 for 3 shifts (regular at busy times, but never guaranteed throughout the year), and £177 tax free wages for 2 shifts (16 hours, not guaranteed but likely easy to get at most times of the year). Recently I’ve been earning 3 shifts/£226, but this is ending now with the low work loads to come throughout the year.

It seems like a no brainer, but I don’t want to be a thief and if it is illegal then I would have no choice but to say no, but my job will not be forever and the good wages will end sooner or later when they decide to end my contract, and with me never being able to guarantee more than a single day a week, I *need* more financial help or I will lose my home and be in debt with the bills and the bank, pushing me even deeper into the pit. I live alone so am responsible for everything myself.

Basically I can earn at most an average of £226 a week for three nights during busier times, totalling £904 a month, and in those rare months where I get paid 5 times £1,130.

OR

I can earn £306 (not including council tax benefit) a week for doing LESS WORK, totalling £1,224 for 4 pay days a month and £1,530 for months where there are 5 pay days.

What the hell, man? The system doesn’t work. I don’t want to be one of those scum living on benefits forever, but I don’t have a career at my job… I’m just a “flexible resource” for the company, as they put it. If I’m offered the chance to sweat my backside off for the company LESS than I currently do for MORE MONEY, should I take that opportunity or just say no and continue to struggle?

I wish I had found this post before i took on a job. i started work on the 9th sept and all of my benefits were stopped immediately leaving me with no money to live on until I received my pay 3 days ago, my last benefit payment went on electricity and gas to ensure I had light and hot water leaving me without any money for food or anything else, my pay check is only just enough to cover my rent arrears due to housing benefits being stopped and to pay for next months rent. I have no money to pay for anything else …………. No food, electricity, gas or even money to get to work.
I think it’s time to hang myself and make Cameron happy !!!

Well i missed my sign on for universal credit by 30 mins due to the bus braking down and got sanctioned for 2 and a half months with no money I have no food or electricity and my health is deteriorating I’ve gone from 12 stone to 10 stone and become anorexic. I have never been a thief but I have had to resort to stealing food for my survival. The universal credit system is a complete failure and WARN PEOPLE DO NOT APPLY FOR UNIVERSAL CREDIT YOU CAN STILL APPLY FOR JSA. I’m sure the people who made this system the way it is all use sleeping pills and will burn in hell

After reading one particular comment, I felt I should add something. Each person circumstances are different and should be taking into consideration before casting negative aspersions. People who fall into the long term unemployed may be a result of a disability or criminal convictions. The benefit system is there to help and not as a means to discriminate.
There are many who make a concerted effort to find work that will make them better off financially. But it appears that being assessed and going over by as little as 50 pence could see an individual receiving no help at all.
Sanctions that leave you with no benefits but you are required to attend mandatory work programmes. In all honesty how do they expect these individuals will eat, pay utilities, bills etc or even attend to sign on.
I think for those who have jobs be thankful and grateful that you at not in the position of millions of others. It’s easy to cast stones when unemployment does affect you. Many people have lost relatives via suicide as a result of being unemployed.
A jobcentre Adviser should advise the claimants of opportunities available to them explain what is mandatory or what is not, encourage them to taking up education/training if it will make their job prospect better. Inform them of other benefits that they are entitled to as to any complaints procedures that are in place should they not be satisfied. Jobcentre should be a place where people receive genuine assistance. Advisers also have a discretionary element to their role which they rarely use.
Work placement should be altered, in that they should be paid work at the going rate. I see no reason why a company should receive money for taking on a individual to work for FREE for 30 hours a week. Doing exactly what their other paid members of staff are doing. Bearing in mind some those part-taking have been sanctioned, receiving no benefits.
For those who are employed how would you like your employer to inform you/partner or spouse that they will work 30 hours a week for a month and receive no pay! If you believe that this is fine I suggest you give a months wages to family member or friend who is currently unemployed as a gesture of good will.

I totally agree… we have a very major problem in this country which i think im gunna take steps to resolve. We have long term unemployed that actually do want to go back to work…. but the very thought of them having their benefits cancelled immidiately, is so frightening, that it puts them off altogether. Far from encouraging them, it leaves them in the same place with no hope and no future. There are thousands of cases that show individual circumstances to have been better off on benefits than working. This needs to change, and the only way forward, is to have a complete overhaul of the benefits culture. I.E. to allow people who have been long term unemployed, to be able to start a job, and still receive benefits for a qualifiying period. IE. fot at very least 3 months of the working schedule. Why do i say this.? Most jobs now, have a probationary period. Of at least 3 months. You can go out there will all the good will in the world, start a job, but either you dont like them, or moreover they dont like you, and can sack you instantly, with no reason at all. Suddenly, you find yourself in a situation where you have no work or benefits… and even to re-instate your housing benefit, will take you, 8 weeks minimum… enough time for your landlord, to start getting you evicted. The whole system is fundamentally flawed, and needs completely Upheaving……xx

Been on the dole 13 months now, got into debt to gain the licenses and car needed to get work and to get to it. Finally been offered a job (zero hour contract) with the first 4 weeks at 20 hours (5 x 4 hour shifts), have done the calculations (hours, rate of pay, fuel costs), checked for benefit entitlement (gov website = £nothing), and found I’ll be £15 worse off a week.

Have considered that the satisfaction of working for my money would be worth the £15 loss, but then gave myself a good slapping about the head, as after working and paying my taxes for 30 years entitles me to stay on benefits until I find a job that pays me to go to it.

I have decided I will only take a position that pays greater than ((dole+housing benefit+fuel costs)+£1), and yes I know that in the long run with car maintenance, road tax and insurance I’m still worse off, but I do want and need to work, I think its called pride but its been a long time since I had any, I could be wrong!

Graduated this year and couldn’t find work so moved back in with my parents and signed on to seek help finding a job. The job centre provided no help finding a job, yet my adviser says I must meet every week to discuss what I have done rather than advising me what to do (which is his job title after all), when asked why we must meet so often he says the job centre tells him they must be in constant contact, so it’s not in our interest to be in contact it’s just what advisers are told to do. The goal advisers are given is to stop people claiming the money they are entitled to, you miss a day they assume that you’re suddenly fully employed so won’t pay a penny or call to check because if they do you may return. Recently got my old part time retail job back which pays same as job seekers allowance, so I have the choice of working for the same amount as being unemployed but with tax to pay, no dental care and no medical prescriptions or doing nothing and receiving more. Ridiculous system with no work incentive, it’s no wonder so many people are unemployed.

ived worked for 30 years im now 54 all i ear the gov saying get the young back to work been on every back to work programe going now they put me in college learning maths and english the reason the dole figures are going down is because they are sanctioning people even for filling in forms wrong was on the gov back to work programe 2 years not one interview been out of work 3 years now after working all my life all i get is jibes when i go for a pint once a week iv had the last laugh tho i just got a flat and get my rent payed and all council tax paid am willing to do part time work but jsa said i would still have to sign on to get my housing benifits surely its better for some one to earn 143 2 weeks then tp be paid jsa these numties havent got a clue my i would bring retirement age down create more jobs for the young if cam gets back in power we will end up like spain and only get beinfits for a year iv paid in all my life just talikng it back now working class never vote torry toffs also was made redundant and im still paying tax they are taking 10.00 every time from my dole money cos my firm deautsch uk cocked up my redundent money lousy bastrds every one of them all in it together joke .

Least you did manage to get a job, I can’t get one no matter how hard I try! So I have gone back to college to train to be an electrician to better my prospects of gaining employment. I have been told that I can’t claim anything even though I am actively job seeking (part time work) I have been informed I can’t have job seekers allowance or any other help due to being classed as a full time student even though I only attend college 2 and a half days a week. So basically I have to give up college to get benefits to help me find a job that I can’t find??

I’m currently attempting to do my nvq’s for shift management and today I’ve actually come to realise I have to quit my job, the problem with this course is that because I’m being trained I’m being paid £3 per hour and I can’t be given more hours to actually make enough money to live off. I know people make remarks like “stop spending money on bullshit things you don’t need” the thing is that I don’t, my money goes on food, travel and bills and after that I’m left with no money for the rest of the month, I’m actually going to despise having to resort back to benefits because of this, how the government can condone allowing a pay rate of £3ph is ridiculous.

Im the latest victim to the JSA small-print.
I tried doing things honestly every step of the way. I became unintentionally unemployed 2 months ago (back in employment now, thank god) and fell onto JSA for support for that time. A couple of weeks in a business-owning friend offered me part-time work to help my expenses as £10 a day wasn’t cutting it. I did everything above board. I asked my job centre ADVISOR if this was ok, and she advised me that indeed it was – so long as I didn’t work over 16 hrs a week and remained ready to work immediately should something become available. It was only when I advised them that I was coming off of JSA to return to full time work a few weeks later that the very same woman told me that there were forms for me to fill in (they had forgotten to give them to me before, apparently) and that I will most likely owe all the money back for the weeks I worked.
What the hell?? For one, where is the incentive to work if youre getting exactly the same money for working as you would be for singularly queuing for the dole, but mostly – how can they justify giving someone the wrong information and then penalising that person months down the line?? I might be looking at a bulk repayment of around £500. Even in employment I cant even comprehend affording that!!
I am thankful for the support system England has. I actually don’t begrudge paying my taxes, because the fact that no person in this country ever need starve is a truly excellent thing. But it seems that people who make a life out of benefit-sponging get all the perks and none of the jip, yet those the system is arguably designed for – who fall into a temporary rut that they ultimately crawl back out of – get surprise penalties and numerous hurdles to cross upon re-entering employment.
The system does not support the right people. It penalises honesty and offers no incentive to return to employment, yet passively endorses those who make no movement towards self-sufficiency.

I really find it insulting that the people in government who are making changes to benefit reforms are stating work pays. well stop penalizing low wage working people and making assumptions and stero typing people

this government should be putting as much effort in recovering cooperation taxs more is lost to big business tax fraud and breaks they are given then what is defrauded or lost in benefits.as that’s the big spin for all the benefit reforms the poor are all at it.

lets take star bucks for instance are they at it whos hitting them over the head with a big stick not mp,s at the top that’s for sure.

I rang up today to ask if i could be given a rough idea of how much housing benefit i would receive this month now working part time however the HB worker was unable to tell me until my claim was processed and then i was informed that i need to pay my rent until HB claim is processed stress stress ( if i end up in debt i only have myself to thank for this mad mess ) The idea work pays clearly Ian Duncan Smith is talking to the wrong working people as I don’t feel working is paying off and if its by an extra ten pounds a week i would like to know if MP,s would be happy after paying there rent and council tax fares to work and food electric and gas if they would be happy to be left with such a mega amount Let me answer that I don’t think so as the house of commons is full to capacity when it comes to their wages and pay insensitive s being discussed and how 23000 pounds is not enough to rent in london try living on it and paying rent and council tax before anything else it accounted for. Out of touch springs to mind give everyone the incentive and decent pay top ups and stop demonizing and hitting the poorer who are decent people over the head with a stick and giving in one and taking from the other government give in tax credits and benefits and local authority’s claw it back by reducing council tax and rent by reducing housing benefit payments that the big community and Locialism for you. looks good on paper however on the flip side fiddling the stats that’s to make it look good so is all that’s happening to justify welfare benefit reforms. rant over

AS A SINGLE MOTHER WITH NO SUPPORT I AM FACING THE PROBLEM OF WORKING PART TIME FOR 8 HOURS A WEEK AND MY SONS NEEDING TO BE LOOKED AFTER AT HOME DURING THE SCHOOL HOLIDAYS THEREFORE HOW CAN I SIGN ON FOR JSA!!!!. I HAVE HAD TO GIVE UP ONE JOB IN ORDER TO LOOK AFTER MY SONS HAVING BEEN ON A 16 HOUR WEEK BEFORE THEY WERE OUT OF SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!

”By 2020 1% of the worlds population will own over 50% of the worlds money”
Since i was born 1989, i have only witnessed and remembered the last 3 reigns of prime-minister. Whilst at school, Tony Blair who i actually met in school, Gordon Brown, and David Cameron. I don’t have a good word to say about any of them. Knowing these represent the only real contenders on the next election i feel my vote is wasted, very much like i don’t have a vote. ‘Democaracy?’ No wonder an increasing number of people do no vote. As stated on a previous comment ”we are becoming modern slaves”.

I am well educated, been to university and gained good qualifications. I am 25, i have worked most of my life since i was 13, and i have also been on the benefit system when leaving one job to another due to issues that are of no fault of my own. I have just found a job working 13 hours a week at just over NMW. On the GOV calculator, i am £3 better off (with the exemption of transport £20/PW) Therefore it should have just said i’m £17 worse off as there are no access for free bus passes etc, thats just another way they can take your money. I have no option but to work for this loss as it gets my foot in the door and having been unemployed since just before x-mas that is a massive boost. The contract is temporary however till November, so ultimately i’m looking at working for 8 months taking a loss of £17 P/W with the vain hope of gaining a permanant role at the company.

During the last 3 months of claiming JSA, i have been one of many victims of a sanction despite seeking employment on a daily basis the whole time which i can provide proof of. When sanctioning me initially it was because what i had wrote down i had done it was was sufficient apparently although it included around 100 applications, 2 telephone interviews, and a Skype interview form a two week period. This resulted in me losing some of my dignity by asking for help when most of my life i have worked. Looking at this ratio and the time it took me to gain employment, i am guessing it is very hard for everyone to gain employment at the moment never-mind one that pays more than on benefits. This proves the idea of more people gaining working as a slave as i would be earning £17 a week under what the government says what we need to live off. More and more people are being forced into these situations, whilst more people are being sanctioned sometimes for long periods of time resulting in the number of claimants which this obviously ‘sly’ government keeps insisting.

If the English people don’t unite and speak loud today’s catastrophe will only deepen into unimaginable territory. Groups need to educate in politics in order for ordinary people to gain an understanding as it is not learnt in school. England should stay England and be run how we English like. That is the same for every country. We all have our views, of which are similar but no action is relevant which is why something on a large-scale must be done to stop the days of £200,000 a week football players and £17 P/W under the amount needed to live off part time workers, who some in-fact are self sufficient hard workers who actively would like to work more in a higher role.

Well after quite afew years ( made redundant), I was so happy to get back into employment with the Alternative learning center that I was volunteering with, I work a 20 hour week (with the chance of this going upto 30 hrs, in the near future), but today got a letter saying that my Rent benefit/Council tax benefit has been suspended, On ringing them in a panic i was informed that they believe I have more capital then they where told ….. Oh yer i earned a little bit more one month …. But earned less the month before due to the half term (you only get paid in term time), our money is pro rata and we have to spread it out over the full year, So we sometimes do afew hours more in certain months, but when calculated for the year ends up what we should get for a full working year, the council previously calculated that I get paid every month the same amount for a full working year, try explaining to them No!! I do not, the overtime is put into a savings account to help with the months I do not get paid, have lost the will to live …. and may have to leave a job that I really love, because its so stressful trying to get the council to understand.

Hiya. I know it sounds glib … but try not to let the council’s incompetence get you down. I’ve been through many similar panics and it’s taught me that time will sort it out. I’ve been paid late by employers who failed to put contracts through so now have a letter writing routine for people I owe money to. Also, I love my job – I really do – but it’s just a job and I have little, if any, control over whether I’m employed on contract again or not. We’re both worth more than job defining our happiness. Thanks for commenting – and I hope it all calms down soon.

I love going on these forums it cheers me up! Ive got Looads of money and love it! spend most weekends at the casino drinking grey goose : )
just need to work hard, study hard and get a good job, ive earned my oceans of cash!

Thank you for your comment, Mr Cameron, but you know as well as I do that what you’re suggesting is nonsense. Most people in receipt of benefits are actually in work. May I direct you to your own statistics and, perhaps, some counselling to make you a more compassionate and less dishonest person; you could take Iain Duncan Smith to counselling with you.

My friend works 30 hours a week she comes out with £140 a week take home before TV licence fines full rent and council tax and pension after all that has gone she is left with £37 pound a week to pay electric gas and do a weeks shopping what a laugh what’s the point benefits or crime is a better option than working the conservative party have always thought about the rich and ignored the working class better off at work what a joke, everyone start to commit crime to support yourselves and your kids, robin Hood, steal from the rich to live not just exist.

It’s the same in Australia. As soon as you dare earn more than $50 a week whilst on benefits, you’re hit with an effective tax rate of 50% which rises to 75% if you earn over $250. What’s the point of working for $25 an hour when the government claws back $19 of it? All the incentive disappears, unless you can actually get enough hours to also make a decent living wage.

I am sick to death of the so called government stiching up decent people.i work part time and take home roughly £200 a fortnight.after I have paid my rent.(actually I rent a single room in a mates house).I am left with £120 for other things ie food etc.i don’t receive housing benefit or any other kind of benefit.so I am left with £60 a week to live on.i don’t drink but I do smoke(one of the few pleasures I allow myself).its now just gone xmas and I haven’t eaten for three days.so yeah thanks mr prime minister I have had a wonderfull Christmas holiday.so in response to staying on benefits do it because you will be worse off if you work part time.i also refuse to sign on because will not be treated like scum by the job centre staff.and in closing I would rather eat a pig than stick my …..in it something our torie friend might like to consider when hes laughing it up with his toff mate .thanks for listening .kat

I’m sorry and angered to hear you’ve not eaten for three days, Kat. I’ve relied on others to feed me on occasion. It’s not Dickensian or romantic – it’s pissing horrible! I just watched Prime Minister’s Questions and get sick of the baying and the bluster when people are genuinely struggling just to get by. Thanks for commenting. I hope it improves for you soon.

I’m on income support just got a job for 16 hours but not on the system at the job yet my boss said don’t say anything to the job centre yet till I’m on the system what will I do for money till I get paid till month because I’ve got to sign of on friday

That’s outrageous, Gayle. You’re being doubly exploited by a system that will penalise you for finding work and a boss for not doing the paperwork fast enough! As far as I know you don’t have to sign off until you have a contract, etc. Research it online. Worst case scenario is, I think, you having to pay back any JSA overpayment. Good luck.

Hi all I’ve just started part time work 8 hours a week at £6.70 per hour I’ve taken this job cos the job centre wanted me to work 35 hours a week in a chaity shop not even in the same city where I live but about 25 miles away and they still wanted me to do 30 hours job serch every week so I signed off and I’m going to sign on again in next few day does anyone know if I will get help as I’ll be on less money doing part time job than I was when I was on jsa and my rent is £92 something a week witch I won’t be earning that and on top of that I got a letter 2 weeks ago before i signed off saying I’ve got to start paying £12 a month council tax as I was on jsa

Since I returned to the UK 6 years ago, I have worked full time for the most part. I have left some jobs for some reason or another, but only because I thought I was moving on to something better. My last full time job was delivering for Amazon, through a third party company called Contact Transport. While working there, my normal working week involved working a minimum of 20 hours per week unpaid (60+ hours pw overall). On top of that, they would tell you there would be a bonus for working through certain periods like the Amazon black friday sales, which was a busy time. They don’t pay so called “bonuses payments”. I’ve contacted Amazon and Contact Transport regarding this and they just don’t want to know. That is why I left. It really boils my piss that massive companies like Amazon and diddies like Contact Transport can get away with things like this. Since then, I have been doing agency work and that is just as bad. Working is not worth it unless you have a good job on good pay. That is why I have decided to go on the sick. Making an effort only costs you in the end. I’ll be bored probably, but at least I won’t be a slave and constantly worrying about money.

i have just come across this and I have to say I am no better off working. all I was able to find was a 20 hour job which got knocked down to 12 hours a week at minimum wage. I have been told I am not entitled to any help, I have to pay for travel, rent, council tax, light, gas, living expenses. that leaves me with very little money then to top it off I find that now I am pregnant I am still not entitled to help until the baby is born. I cant even get a maternity grant to help with costs.

universal credits wtf ?? beyond a joke ihave been on it since i got laid of end of jan 2016 and i asked them repeatedly and i always get diffrent answers i had 3 weeks work between 23rd feb 2 the 15 th march all i want is too know where istand mostly cos of my rent but can never get a straight answer apart from the 1st 111 quid a week u keep then they take 65p off every pound and thats it any1 with ne news would b a massive help cheers the uc is just ridonk typical cameron!!!!!!!

I came out of work last year (April) and was put on universal credit. First they said everything is included in one monthly payment. WRONG, they never told me I had to claim for council tax benefit. My JCP work adviser also told me that I could apply to have my rent paid direct to my landlord for a maximum of 6 month. I thought great, lets do that and that way I will not have to worry about rent for six month. WRONG again, they never paid a penny and when asked about back dating it they replied we can not back date housing benefit. Lucky for me I returned to work after only 2 month and universal credit continued to pay me 35% of the benefit for 6 month. This helped a lot, then got a letter at Christmas saying I was no longer entitled to UC. In January I was out of work again and because UC monitor your bank account (not only while you are claiming, but also for 5 month after you stop) they decided that because I had earned over £1000 in January (wages that I lived on) I was only paid £23 at the end on February. I then received a call from dept works and pensions informing me that from April this year you will not be allowed to earn the £111 per month before you are deducted 65% of UC. I should have also been paid my UC today 29th and yes you guessed it NO i haven’t. Work does not pay unless you can find a job that pays around £400 per week because minimum wage or living wage (just re-branding the name) just does not work. I am now going to incur £5 a day bank charges for being over drawn, thanks to UC and that wanker Cameron, I hope he dies from a long, slow and very painful death.

That wanka Cameron won’t win next election hes a complete arse and so it that mummy of his (stupid old idiot) who have the already millionaire and more money, why can’t the silly old woman give the money to charity. The rich always support the rich.. so many peoples money being cut and one step from living in boxs. The government are the true criminals here. The bloke is living on borrowed time, Labour isn’t the best but I’m sure they can’t do much worse that that arse and arse licking to the yanks and the Chinese, giving billions to ‘investments’ abroard and billions to foreign aid and wars but every bloody service, infrastructure and benefits being cut to the max. If it wasn’t for charities, the people wobld be literally in the shite. Nice one Cameron you Muppet, keep up the good work. What next, tax for using oxygen in the street or taxing kids playing out in YOUR streets, if they could, they would!

I’ve just started work this week part time at 17 hours a week and the hourly wage is £9.14, the only problem i have is it’s a month in advance, can i claim anything to fill the gap until i get paid as i can’t live without money for a month, i’m married with 2 dependant children and bills to pay.
What am i supposed to live on until i get paid as the DSS ain’t no help as they say i’m not entitled to anything, if thats true then i will risk to continue to sign on until i get paid from work and then pay the consequences later, any advice will be appreciated…

You have to ask your job centre advisor outright, probably repeatedly. They won’t tell you. As far as I’m aware you should be entitled to benefits for a few weeks after you start work – indeed this was much of the argument for Universal Credit. Your advisor should help you “manage your move into work” according to the government website. This should be reducing but not ending your benefits. https://www.gov.uk/moving-from-benefits-to-work/support-when-you-start-working I really can’t see that you’re not entitled to anything. If they mess you about maybe you can write to your MP (depending on whether you think they’re likely to help). Don’t let them fob you off. Good luck.

If you are on Universal Credit you can ask for an advance to tie you over. When you start work you will continue to be paid UC for around 6 months, minus 65% of what you earn. They CAN NOT expect anyone to work a month without pay or any money to live on. If you get no joy from UC ask for their complaints procedure, this sometimes scares them into helping.